The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1887-06-02

ate, on Decoration Day, I shall be res
lrrected into the remembrance of those
or whom 1 died. Here 1 go for God
md my country If foreign foe should ever
,ome all sectional animcsities would be OBJ
iterated. Here go our regiments into the
battle, side by side, Fifteenth New York
Tenth Alabama cavalry, Four
5eenth Pennsylvania rifemen, Tenth Massa-
chusetts artillery, Seventh South Carolina
/ have no faith in the cry:
mo north, no south, no east, no west" Let
all four sections keep their peculiarities and
their preferences, each doing its own work
and not interfering with each other, each OF
the four carrying its part in the great har-
bass, the alto, the tenor, the
soprano in the grand march of the Union.
| congratulate you, the officers and sol
diers of this National encampment, that if a
foreign attack should at any time be made
you would be ready, and there would be mil
lions Of the drilled men of north and south,
like the men Of my first text, which could |
keep rank, and like the men of my second |
text, that would not miss hair breadth
At this National drill, when thirty-one |
states of the Union are represented, and be
tween the decorations of the graves of the |
southern dead, which took place few days |
ago, and the decorations of the northern dead, |
which shall take place tomorrow, would !
stir the Christian patriotism and gratitude |
not only of this soldiery here present. but of
all the people, by putting before them the
difference between these times, when the sol |
diers of all sections meet in peace, and the |
times when they met in contest Contrast |
the feeling Of sectional bitterness in !
1862 with the feeling of sectiona. unity
in 1887. At the first date the south
had banished the national air, "The
Star Spangled Banner" and the north had
banished the popular air of "Way Down
South in Dixie" The northern people were
"mudsils" and the southern people were
"Whte trash" The more southern people
were killed in battle the better the north
liked it. The more northern people were
killed in battle the better the ,Iouth liked it.
For four years the head of Abraham Lincoln
or Jefferson Davis would have been worth
81 100000, if delivered on either side the line
No need now, standing in our pulpits an !
platforms, of saying that the north and sou.h
did not hate each other. To estimate how
very dearly they loved each other, count up
the bombshells that were hurled and the car
bines that were loaded and the cavalry
horses that were mounted, north and south
facing each other, all armed, in the attempt
all their earthly hostilities, but tried to reach
up and get hold of the sword of heaven,
and the prayer of the northern and south
ern pulpits gave more information to the
heavens about the best mode of settling this
trouble than was ever used For four years
both sides tried to get hold of the Lords
thunderbolts but could not quite reach them
At the breaking out of the war we had not
for months heard of my dear uncle, Samuel
J. Talmage, president of the Oglethorpe uni
versity, in Georgia He was about the
grandest man l ever knew, and as good as
good could be. The first we heard of him
was his opening prayer in the Confederate
congress in Richmond, which was reported in
the New York papers, which prayer, if
answered, would, to say the least, have left
all his northern relatives in very uncomfort-
able circumstances. The ministry at the
north prayed one way and the ministry at
the south prayed the other way. No use in
hiding the fact that the north and the south
cursed each other with q whitening and all
consuming curse
Beside that antipathy of war time I place
the complete accord of this time Not long
ago meeting in New York was held to raise
money to build home at Richmond for
crippled Confederate soldiers and was pre-
leg in fighting on the northern side, and the
leg which was not lost so hurt that it does not
amount to much. The Cotton exhibition held
not long ago at Atlanta was attended by tens
of thousands of northern people and by Gen.
Sherman, who was greeted with kindness, as
though they had never seen him before. At
the New Orleans exhibition, held two wears
ago, every northern state was represented A
thousand fold kindlier feeling after the war
than before the war. No more use for gun
powder in this country, except for rife prac-
tice or Fourth of July pyrotechnics or a shot
at roebuck in the Adirondacks. Brigadier
generals in the Southern Confederacy
making their fortunes as lawyers in the
northern cities. Rivers of Georgia, Ala
bama and North Carolina turning
| mills of New England capitalists. The old
| Hons of war, Fort Sumter and Moultrie and
Lafayette and Pickens and Hamilton, sound
asleep on their iron paws, and instead of rails
ing money to keep enemies out of our New
York harbor, raising money for the Bartholdi
statute on Bedloe's island, figure of liberty
with uplifted torch to light the way to ali
who want to come in. Instead of war antip-
nthies, when you could not cross the line be-
tween the contestants without fighting your
way with keen steel or getting through by
bayonets, you need only railroad ticket
! from New York to Charleston or New Orleans
to go clear through, and there is no use for
any weapon sharper or stronger than steel
pen Since the years of time began their
| roll, has there ever been in about two decades
| such an oyermastering antithesis as between
the war time of complete bitterness, and this
time of complete sympathys
Contrast also the domestic life of those
times with the domestic life of these times
| Many of you We're either leaving home OF fa1
away from it, communicating by uncertain
| letter What a morning that was when you
left homel Father and mother crying, sisters
crying. you smiling outside but crying inside
! Everybody nervous and excited. Boys of tbe
blue and grayl whether you started from the
banks of the Hudson, or the Savannah, or thC
Androscoggu, don't you remember the scenes
at the front door, at the rail car window, OF
the steamboat landing? The huzza could no
drown out the suppressed sadness Don't yol
remember those charges to write home often
and take good care of yourself, be good boys
and the goodby kiss which they thought anC
you thought might be forever? Then tn,
homesickness as you paced the river bank Oh
a starlight night on picket duty, and the sly
tears which you wiped off when you heard
!
song about the old folks at home. The dinner o
hard tack on Thanksgiving Day, and tn
Christmas without any presents, and the lonl
nights in the hospital, so different from th
sickness when you were at home with mothe
and sister at the bedside, and the clock in tn
hall giving the exact moment for the medi
cine; and that forced march when your leg
ached and your head ached, and you
wounds ached, and more than all, your hear
ached Homeslckness, which had in it a suf
location and a pang worse than death Yo1
never got hardened as did the guardsman il
the Crimean war, who heartlessly wrot
home to his mother:
81 do not want to see any more crying let
ters come TO the Crimea from you. Those
have received put into my rifle after load
ing it, and have fired them at the Russians
because you appear to have strong dislik
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